Are these cupping reports going to become a thing?
I am not sure in all honesty, but right now they seem like a good idea!
Just a brief one this week, as although we thoroughly tasted through all of the coffees on our offer list, most of them feature in last week's cupping report, and my opinions haven't changed on those coffees - So in the interest of keeping the website content fresh here's a little overview into some of the coffees we've tasted this week.
Los Rodriguez, Bolivia, Pink Honey Java
A cheeky little first insight into Los Rodriguez from Conscious. It wasn't even on the website at the time of writing, so this little report will only be visible to the extremely eagle eyed who fancy finding out a little more about this coffee.
Our category of Wild & Complex - I've often wondered if we should maybe turn it into two categories, one called "Wild", another called "Complex" - as some coffees that appear in this category are really wild, ferment-forward and unique. Other coffees that have featured have been more reserved and polity, but with so much depth, clarity and complexity that they simply had to be featured... This coffee is an example of the latter category.
Honestly, I absolutely love coffees like this, so I'll probably come across as slightly biased in my writing, but at least you know my thoughts are authentic!
This coffee is a really classic representation of Bolivian terroir. The flavour clarity is off the charts, everything is so clear - the flavour journey starts and as you progress through the coffee as it turns from hot to warm to cool to cold, each stage expresses different flavours, so this coffee is far from being unidimensional, and deserving of being described as complex.
What stands out most to me is actually not the flavours that we found on the cupping table, but far before the cupping table. When I first opened the sack, I remarked to Alfie on just how high quality the green sorting was. Not one defect in sight. After roasting the coffee, we evaluated the coffee being whacked about in the cooling tray by the mixing paddles of the Loring S15. Normally even on the highest quality lots, you can see at least one blonde-coloured quaker or an underrated bean being kicked about, but in this lot? Nothing. Not one defect.
Perhaps to the average coffee enjoyer, that might not sound very impressive, but to not find a single defect in 7.5kg of coffee is seriously impressive sorting from the Bolivian dry mills. I've yet to get every little detail from Conscious, who facilitated the import logistics of this coffee, but I would imagine that this particular coffee has been rigorously hand sorted. This translates wonderfully into the cupping bowl.
The body is one of the best that I've had from any coffee, even among coffees that have been 4-5x the price. It's almost like drinking silky chocolate genache, where it's so viscous and well structured.
Flavour journey
Up front, hot, it starts with a very clear 60% dark chocolate, reminiscent of a phenomenal coffee that I tried once upon a time from Blackbear coffee roasters, whose proprietor now heads up Jan Lek eatery in Audlem.
When the coffee begins to tail off from that initial thermal mass into something instantly quaffable, hold off from drinking the whole thing, as there's plenty left in the flavour journey to go if you want to get the full experience.
When warm, the acidity of the coffee starts to rear its head. Expect (again, extremely clearly) honeydew melon, which turns into a very high quality lemon verbena, giving that delicious citric-like herbaceousness - which may be the most pretentious sentence ever written, but I think if there's any coffee which deserves a little bit of well earned status, it's this one.
As the coffee cools off further, we find that the dark chocolate from earlier ramps up into something a little more flavour intense. From that 60% dark chocolate to something more like an 80% dark chocolate. Still with plenty of that melon and verbena-like acidity. These flavours carry through the finish and into the aftertaste, finishing a little bitter.
This coffee was only roasted on the 9th, and also I screwed up our brewing water here at the roastery and accidentally made a batch that was 220ppm, rather than 110ppm - which most likely accounts for that bitterness in the finish - but as I say, this is about transparency so I guess we're leaving this in.
Cesar Buesaquillo, Colombia, Natural Pink Bourbon
Pink Bourbon - or Variedad Rosado if you're so inclined. Easily in my top 5 coffee varieties - incredibly versatile, complex and straight up delightful.
This was a little sample we received from our mates over at Cofinet. Liam, Beth and the team know exactly what we like, and have gotten used to our preferences - I'm sure they were chuckling to themselves when they sent this natty over to our QC Lab, basically knowing that we'd love it and buy it... Which is exactly what happened.
Cesar is a new producer that I'm personally unacquainted with, but man... this guy knows how to produce a damn good coffee. Again it's been a day of finding a lack of defective coffee beans. I normally find at least one, but in this sample lot? Nothing.
Flavour Journey
Up front, we found lots and lots of intense strawberry. Even when the coffee was not yet immersed in water. Heaps of the stuff - and it came with a particular sweetness that reminded me a lot of sweets - so how does Strawberry laces sound as a flavour note? Pretty good right?
As the coffee came down to a tasting temperature, the strawberry theme continued, this time, some of that natural processing came out, giving us some dairy-like characteristics and chocolate. It's hard to express in a little note like this just how much sweetness had been packed into this little flavour rocket.
As time progresses, we'll start to taste more of the coffee, and give a more detailed report on how that flavour progresses, but needless to say, we were very impressed.
Within a few minutes after tasting, I was on the phone to Liam, telling him to lock us the heck in. So in about 6 weeks, once this coffee docks off of freight, you'll be pleased to hear that we'll be getting this little beanie onto the offer list.
That's all for today - there are many more coffees that we tasted, but it seems improper to talk about coffees that we didn't choose to buy - even though they were all delicious in their own way!